First home buyers get $81m state help

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First home buyers are rushing to get the State Government's
$5000 first home buyers' cash bonus before it expires in June. So
far, 16,207 applicants have shared in the $81 million Government
cash.

Young home buyers in Melbourne's surging outer south-east, west
and north growth corridors comprise the bulk of recipients, new
State Revenue Office figures show.

The number one postcode for grant recipients is 3977 -
Cranbourne, Cranbourne East, Cranbourne West, Cranbourne North,
Skye and Junction Village - with 274 applications for the cash.

In postcode 3030 (Werribee South, Sanctuary Lakes, Derrimut,
Point Cook and Werribee) 262 home buyers have got the grant.

In postcode 3064, in Melbourne's north (Mickleham, Roxburgh Park
and Craigeburn), 237 first home buyers have shared nearly $1.2
million.

The $5000 cash grant is available to first home buyers on
purchases of up to $500,000.

The grant became available on May 1 last year for 14 months
until June 30 this year. But it could be extended or modified.

Treasurer John Brumby was coy about the grant's future in an
interview with The Age. Asked if the Government was
seriously considering extending it past June, Mr Brumby responded:
"We have got an open mind on that. We didn't rule that in, we
didn't rule that out . . . that'll be a matter for the budget."

Mr Brumby said many who had received the money would not have
been able to buy a home without it. "It has, I think, for a
significant number of home buyers made the difference between
whether they buy or whether they don't buy," he said.

It was pleasing that many regional home buyers had got the
grant, the Treasurer said.

While the grant is known as the "first home bonus", home buyers
are not restricted to spending the money solely on buying a home.
Last May Premier Steve Bracks said first home buyers could use it
to buy household items such as furniture or pay for removal costs.
But in reality they can use it to buy CDs, DVDs - anything they
please.

Because the 16,207 home buyers also received the $7000 first
home buyers grant, they shared total Government assistance of about
$200 million.

Shadow treasurer Robert Clark said stamp duty collections had
jumped from $1 billion to $2.2 billion a year since the Bracks
Government won office. "Stamp duty on the typical Melbourne house
is now more than 80 per cent higher than when they came to office .
. . the Bracks Government should either continue the grant or
provide across-the-board stamp duty relief," he said.

Mr Clark said Victorian first home buyers who bought a $350,000
home and who used the $5000 grant on stamp duty still had to find
an further $11,660, compared to $4500 for a first home buyer in
Queensland and "zero" in NSW on a $350,000 home.

Real Estate Institute of Victoria CEO Enzo Raimondo said he was
surprised by the high number of grant recipients.

"I would like to see it continue because clearly the gap between
home ownership for those that are able to afford it and those who
are just on the borderline is obviously widening, and any help that
first home buyers can get to assist them is obviously a good
thing," he said.

Mr Brumby said there was no evidence that people were
fraudulently claiming the $5000 grant. Random auditing was carried
out, he said.